With a theme of 'Music From the Middle of Life,' La Jolla Symphony & Chorus explores pivotal moments

What does Beethoven have in common with Anna Thorvaldsdottir, an up-and-coming Icelandic composer? Their music will be featured during the 2016-17 season of the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus. Equally important, they fit in perfectly with the season’s theme, “Music From the Middle of Life.”

Steven Schick, the symphony’s music director since 2007, was inspired to choose this theme while reading Dante’s “Inferno”— in Italian. It was the first line that especially captivated him: “In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself within a dark woods where the straight way was lost."

“Everyone can relate to midlife crisis,” said Schick, who is in his early 50s. “How do you want to live the second part of your life? It’s a common occurrence, and it happened to me. I started to wonder if it had happened to composers. Did any have a pivot? On investigation, there’s barely a composer that didn’t have one.

“A most interesting example is Beethoven. He was going deaf and experiencing a political awakening. He produced more complex and personally oriented music than he had before. We decided to do a season of music that represents a sudden departure from the past.”

Playing for love

The La Jolla Symphony & Chorus is unique in many ways. While it has a small paid staff, the more than 200 musicians and singers are volunteers. More than 40 percent of its performances include premieres, recent compositions, and rarely performed orchestral and choral works. An emphasis on adventurous repertoire is a constant.

David Chase has been the symphony’s choral director for 40-plus years. He credits the symphony’s maturation to the late Thomas Nee, its director for 31 seasons. Thanks to Schick, he said, the organization has truly blossomed.

“Steve keeps these folks who play for love operating at the highest level,” Chase noted. “That’s an amazing thing to do. Choral directors are like ministers; we make volunteers love the music so much that they’ll work hard and perform their hearts out during concerts. But orchestra directors don’t often do that.”

“We weren’t sure of the future until he showed up and showed us the way.”

Chase said Schick often gets off a plane with an idea of the season’s theme and specific works to support it.

Pivot points

How about that commonality between Beethoven and Iceland’s Thorvaldsdottir, who will turn 40 next year?

“You can experience a midlife crisis anytime,” Schick said. “We chose pieces by young composers who are not in the middle of their lives, but their work represents pivot points. They are reevaluations of life at a time of the crises. The pieces by Thorvaldsdottir and others were breakaway pieces that introduced the composers to broader audiences.”

It’s fair to assume that Schick has resolved his aforementioned midlife crisis, given his busy and varied schedule. An acclaimed percussionist, he is a distinguished music professor at the University of California San Diego, where he leads Red Fish Blue Fish, a sought-after percussion ensemble of six accomplished graduate students that tours nationally and abroad. Schick is also in his sixth year as artistic director of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, a professional ensemble dedicated to contem<FZ,1,1,21>porary music.

Now in his 10th year as the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus’ music director and conductor, he recently had his contract renewed through 2022.

“It’s significant to have the contract,” Schick said. “An orchestra and chorus of this size are full of opinions, so it’s great to hear: ‘We want you for six more years.’

“Is this a pivot for ourselves? The theme’s no accident. We are opening new horizons and looking to the future.”

David Chase adieu

The symphony has another pivotal point in its future. Chase, its longtime choral director, will retire at the end of this season.

Schick admitted to being in denial.

“We’ll name a successor soon and it will be a happy day,” Schick said. “But none of that will diminish the loss we’ll feel. He has defined the sound of the chorus. We’ll miss him.”

Chase’s last season will include his conducting of the orchestra’s annual Christmas Messiah Community Sing. His finale features works about the different phases of love.

“It’s a program that I’ve thought about for a long time,” Chase said. “Much choral music is bound to the church. Great music has been written, but we live in an increasingly secular society, so it’s a good idea to develop a secular repertoire.

“Unlike church music, Samuel Barber’s piece is very personal. The text is somewhat erotic, describing how lovers interact. The other main piece is an absolutely glorious, romantic piece by Schoenberg.”

Back to the ‘Middle of Life’

In addition to the Beethoven works, Schick noted that “Sinfonia” by Luciano Berio is a piece that fits perfectly into the season’s theme.

“It is a seemingly otherworldly piece,” he said. “In the 1960s, using samples was seldom done. Berio has a long quote of Mahler, for example, music from a different era. These days, it’s very familiar. I drive a German car, wear American-made jeans and like Thai food. In the world of music then, radical juxtapositions were very strange.

“Sinfonia was his most famous large piece and connects with him contemporary political thought when it was center stage.”

Adventurous programming, Schick said, is not something the symphony’s audiences accept — they expect it. He likened it to a journey the orchestra, chorus and audience are on, with risk shared on both sides of the stage.

The organization’s community outreach programs are part of its mission, as is its commitment to keep ticket prices low.

“You get unbelievable quality,” he said. “We make music for the sheer love of it. I love that we are founded on the purest motives ever.”